+1 million Spotify streams
To generate +1 million streams for one song on Spotify in under a year, you need approx. 3000 plays per day. From a Spotify payout amount, many articles indicate it is approximately $4k USD per song per million streams. The compounded payout from having multiple songs generating multiple millions of streams, could be advantageous.
Of the Soca Artists with multiple +1 million Spotify songs, it is no wonder that the King of Soca Machel Montano dominates the collection. He accounts for nearly 30% of all Soca songs that have reached the +1m milestone on Spotify to date. Bunji Garlin shares another 10% of the allotment from a Soca artist perspective, with a mix of both Soca and Dance songs in his million+ repertoire.
From the producer’s vantage point, Precision Productions has put a stamp on nearly 10% of all the Soca with over a million plays on Spotify, with a slew of songs dating back to 2011 that have generated over 60m in Spotify streams. Most recent productions, both from 2019 Into You by Patrice Roberts with +2 million plays and Yuh Bad (No Stressing) by Preedy has nearly 3m Spotify streams.
Similarly, Diplo, over the past 10 years, either via Mad Decent or Major Lazer, has contributed to Soca and or collaborations with Soca artists, with an EDM touch, and has generated over 60m in Spotify streams to date. Both Precision and Diplos‘ production teams have countless hits with various Soca Artists including Machel Montano. Some of their productions with MM include: One Wine, Front of the Line (with Konshens), Mr. Fete and Remedy to name a few.
The 2003 classic Turn Me On by Kevin Lyttle, the original soca version produced by Adrian Bailey, is currently in a league of its own with +250m Spotify streams (RIAA Platinum). The nearest song is the +70m Spotify streamed (almost RIAA GOLD) 2014 collaboration of Machel Montano with pop-star Ariana Grande on the All My Love – Remix produced by Major Lazer. Tempted to Touch by Rupee in 2002 with its main ISRC has over +45m Spotify streams, and when you consider its any variations and remixes the song has nearly 80m streams on Spotify alone.
Recent data indicates that the average time it takes a Soca song to generate 1m streams on Spotify is 1.5-2 years and, a very small fraction of all Soca songs released, have met this +1 million play mark on Spotify, making it a major milestone. As we move further into the streaming age and more countries (now 184 countries) get access to Spotify (and by extension Soca), the rate and pace of Soca songs reaching the million-mark on Spotify has been speeding up.
The viral sensation Mind My Business by Patrice Roberts produced by Travis World and Dan Evens released in December 2021 was the first in a string of Soca songs to hit 1m Spotify streams at an accelerated pace. Within 3 months of release, Mind My Business, Face Beat by Father Philis produced by Nine & Soca Start by DJ Cheem & IQ produced by DJ KY, would all generate +1m streams on Spotify – all due to a viral or Tik Tok related trend.
This year so far, there are nine (9) Soca songs trending on Spotify with over 3k streams per day. Kes the Band has four (4) songs with pace including two (2) dancehall collaborations – Mood featuring Shaggy and Honeycomb featuring Busy Signal, along with Jub Jub produced by Tano & Fuh Spite produced by N.M.G Music. Machel Montano has three (3) songs including Like Yuh Self with Patrice Roberts produced by Xplicit Mevon, Shake the Place with Destra Garcia produced by Tano, Mical Teja & Travis World and, The Spirit produced by Papo Productions. Both Hard Fete by Bunji Garlin produced by DJ Avalanche, and Come Home by Nailah Blackman and Skinny Fabulous produced by Kyle Phillips, Kitwana Israel, Xplicit Mevon and Anson Pro, grew to over 400k streams at rapid pace during the Trinidad Carnival season. A similar exuberance was felt on the ground for the two songs, which propelled Bunji to the #1 spot with Hard Fete and Nailah & Skinny with Come Home at the #2 position for the 2023 Trinidad Road March. If these songs are able to keep up this pace, they will join the +1 million stream group in under a year, further growing the trend of heavily streamed Soca songs at a rapid pace, but this time without the virality of a social media spike.
Check out this playlist of the Top Soca songs with Spotify streams over +1 million.
